Dear Dorm Room,
Hope you are doing well in spite of the mess I have created out of you. This letter might come as a surprise. Of course, we see each other every day. Yet, I write to you to let you know how much I adore the cosy corner you secure for me. It was 19th of August this year when I first opened your door, only to find your barren white walls, empty brown shelves, dry orange soft board, and spotless white shades covering the windows and whiteboard.
Your walls appeared to call out to me, “Hola lady! Hello lady! Bonjour lady! Namaste lady!” to figure which tongue suited me more. This surprised me. I did not expect you to keep a note of the tongues of the two women who were to reside within you. Yet, upon the arrival of the second woman, I was amazed at how easily you made the environment comfortable for both Hindi and Telugu! Even when we switched to English, you gave in a fair contribution. For you gave us equal spaces to communicate with our relatives in two distinct languages within those four walls. And when it came to our communication, you gave us a private area to translate the funniest things we know in our languages to unsuccessful yet laughable phrases in English.
You definitely appeared to be good at heart. We could see new possibilities. In accordance, we decided to bring out those qualities on the exteriors. How did we do that? You know well by now.
The first thing we fixed turned out to be your barren white walls. And how did we do that? Yes, right, we did it with good old fairy lights! A dorm room without fairy lights is like Charlie Chaplin without his mini moustache. We conventionally arranged the lights in a U-shape. What next? You ought to remember…right?
We adorned the walls with Marvel posters. No wonder, Tony Stark has that magical effect. We also loaded your shelves with the knowledge and creativity of some renowned people around the world. We arranged in them a myriad of vibrant books. I admire your eagerness to learn things out of them. Yes! The quotes from The Fault in our Stars you shout out does the job.
While we dream of pleasurable things in sleep, you press upon us the reality when your walls resonate in unison with the alarms going off on high volume. I know, I know. It requires patience to put up with the startling alarm tones that compete with each other in the mornings. And your concern outweighs your irritation when you shout out, “The world isn’t a wish granting factory”. For we wake up startled into realities of everyday life with the whiteboard calling out to us the “to-do” checklist for the day.
You also make sure to adjust your environment according to our psychological state: warm and welcoming when we return dejected against the cold. In those days, you are bright with fairy lights, full with euphoria.
You warmly accept unfamiliar faces, with our polaroid shots hanging on your soft board. By that, you lessen the phases of homesickness that bother us. With all weird faces we make in those pictures, you help us value the memories more than the physical beauty that lines them. Of course, we hear you saying, “Just put on the weirdest pictures you have! It’s not a matrimonial platform after all!”
So dear companion, let me tell you that I adore the way you resonate with the laughs when a 5’2’’ woman stands against her 5’9’’ roommate to share the most exciting news of the day. I admire the acceptability you shower on us when we leave you in the dust while off campus. I adore the way you welcome the neighbouring fellows and enjoy them praising your beauty. But above all, I love the way you secure my cosy corner providing me with the best of comforts. Hope to carry this friendly relation in the years ahead. Stay clean! Stay mess-free. Well, if I allow so.
Yours lovingly,
A Messy Roomer
Edited by Kartika Puri (UG 2019)